 Hello everyone. So we are back and I am Sanjay Gupta and today we have our guest Irwin. So welcome Irwin on the channel. I hope those who are following bootcamp you are already familiar with Irwin. So in this talk or you can say in this session we are not going to discuss anything technical. We are not going to deliver any content. So I just organized this session or talk with Irwin so that I can give you some insight of his tech journey like how he ramped from non-technical background to Salesforce QA. So that it will motivate you and you can also plan your journey accordingly by having some insights from Irwin. Okay so with this Irwin once again welcome and please start with something like how you did transition from non-technical background to Salesforce QA so that people can relate their journey as well because I have lots of students or followers. Those who are from non-technical background and want to jump into Salesforce ecosystem on any particular role. Over to you. Thank you Sanjay. Thank you so much. So hi guys. So to begin with I professionally started my journey as a nutritionist. I got certified in that I became a certified person trainer as well. And it is something which is yet going on proudly with being a Salesforce QA. Back in 2020 I got this opportunity joined my previous company where Sanjay and I happened to be the colleagues and also the most important part he was my mentor as well. So I joined Traction On Demand as the workforce experience specialist where in my role was more or less the fact that fellow employees are having a good experience in the company. So gradually while you know seeing everyone working on Salesforce and listening about it every now and then that intrigued me a bit in order to learn it. Though before that I had never ever dreamt of getting into the technical world because I basically hail from a commerce background. So yeah this is something great. And to relate this I graduated from arts and then I will jump to this technical side. So I first time got to know like you are from commerce background. Okay. So that's how you know initially I had no like no insight at all around what Salesforce is and how the thing goes. API is to me at that time was more or less like a foreign language. I have never heard of to be very honest but gradually it came into practice. I got to know about it when I started getting trained on it. As I said earlier Sanjay was my mentor who helped me work on Salesforce and get my basics layer on how to you know get the navigations on the platform as well. Learn about the floors process builders and many more other concepts which were vital role. Coming to the fact that how QA. So while I was very much sure that I want to switch from from non technical role to a technical one. Explored various roles in our in our world right the technical world where then you know they their roles like developer QA. Project manager architect consulting many more. So the very first thing that I realized was one that of course in the very beginning I couldn't do code. So I was sure of the fact that if I go there that's going to be more or less like a suicide mission for me because I was aware of the fact that I cannot code. Right. So but yeah if you guys can code you're from non technical background you're confident enough do opt for it. Don't shy away. Right. But do have a clear picture in your mind that yes what you're going to do is something that you're going to enjoy and love. Then I got to know about QA. Of course if I talk about it in layman terms it's more or less like I've been getting a key. So we got the right just for the fun sake but over here we are doing it officially. We are taking out errors we are fetching out defects and bugs in the software that has been developed. So on a serious note I literally got a bit connected with the road with regards to the fact wherein we have to begin the. We have to fetch for different things and we have to follow a set of steps. But with the fact we have to be inquisitive each and every time we look at the functionality even if we are testing it so that we could find something new just to make sure that we are delivering the best. So that's how I opted for QA how I finally got that yes QA is the right thing that I cannot talk. Yeah this sounds interesting and we have one question related to this like how non-technical person can get into Salesforce where to start first. So I also have the same question like what challenges a beginner face when they decide to move from non-technical background to technical. So any role no matter it is Salesforce QA but if they decide to any role so what problem you faced and how you overcome overcame from them. Okay so the most important part of switching is that firstly you should get introduced to the software or the platform that you're going to work upon. Make sure that you start learning about initially I wasn't aware of Salesforce right like I am working on Salesforce I was never aware of it that how it works what exactly it is in the beginning I wasn't even aware of what a CRM platform is. So basically what you have to do is whenever you're switching make sure that you're studying about it you're reading about it thoroughly you're understanding the concepts and then that will help you switch in a very smooth manner. One point number two the challenges one of the challenges was to understand some technical terms especially with regards to some syntaxes or like you know the mostly common most commonly used term API is because that is more or less the backbone of our system. So we have to make sure that we know them of course we cannot like they're not coding in the right in the initial phase but we are at least being cognizant of that. So the other last challenge what I felt was that it was more or less how to find out the sources where I can learn. There are many sources right there are many sources and on most of the platforms what you'll find is the information is different. So being a beginner and being a knife it becomes a question that what set of information is authentic. So make sure that one you're selecting the right thing to understand that the platform but in the beginning you'll get that question just to make sure that you know you're going on the right path and secondly choose the right person whom you can learn from. I was fortunate enough not because I'm just sitting right in front of me but the fact that I hadn't you know had an honor to be trained by him and trust me it took like our course was like for three to four months. Where we started preparing for admin and then we eventually I eventually gave my admin cert exam. So all we did was we practiced thoroughly we created our own orcs does not matter you know if it's one or two or six or trust me even then I had like five of my own wherein I had implemented the same application which was taught by Sanjay for the starters which was the recruitment application. My aim was only to make sure that I'm understanding the concepts and post that I brought up my own things like whatever the areas of my interest are I brought up that into the name of my application. Yeah so you rightly said because without platform understanding no one can apply for a job and that was the idea because individually I won't be able to cover lots of folks so I think what you said even my mentorship helped you. So because of that like I conducted this bootcamp and I delivered session in such a way so that if I'm not around then also they can watch that session recording and do some implementation because I just implemented everything in the live session. So it is recorded and anytime anyone can practice project is also their whole recruitment app I implemented myself. So it took me six session to deliver that so that is already there so please guys follow whatever suggestions even sharing with you right so prepare a base for yourself. And we know like this year market is a little bit low but this won't happen for a long term right so soon market will open up and you will see lots of opportunities but if you don't have proper platform ready for you so it would be very difficult for you to pick that base right. So in continuation to that can we talk specifically about Salesforce QA like how Salesforce QA role is and if one wants to go for this role because I can see a few questions are there like as a fresher how we can apply for this role. And I'm sure like if any fresher is applying for this role so other than admin they should know some specific QA concepts that you delivered in the sessions as well and what tools they need to learn prior to apply for jobs. So if you can talk about that so it would really help people. So for starters I would like to mention that you know whenever you're trying to apply for a job like right now we're talking about Salesforce QA right people definitely look for experience. So being a QA you know they are more or less inclined towards the fact how experienced you are or how knowledgeable you are. So make sure even if you are if you don't hold a hands-on experience with regards to working in an organization hold a hands-on experience wherein you are actually creating your own scenarios in your orgs and then you're testing it while executing those functionalities creating defects creating bugs for yourself rectifying it and then retesting those. Also you know while retesting those make sure that by rectifying you are just partially rectifying it so that you can create another bug or another defect out of it. So that your process of you know you'll be very much clear on the fact that how the bug and defect cycle goes right take out different test scenarios out of it. So you will be able to fetch as many test cases as you want. While creating test cases in interviews usually people make sure that you know how well you're covering the steps that must be covered from starting to the end. Because of the fact that you know when you're finally delivering it to the customer and you're helping the customer with the test cases he or she would expect that you know everything is over there. So while going for the interview make sure you have all those points one, two, whenever going for an interview make sure that you are well prepared with Salesforce and QA practices. It should not be like you know you're going for QA's role you are just bang on with the QA practices and QA logics but you are not you know that good with Salesforce logics or basics. Because if that happens it would be a straight no no for that. Reason being when you're as you know if you talk about a QA a QA should know the software as good as he or she knows the back of their hands right. They should be very much familiar to it. Of course like I'm not saying that you know you can you should be good on triggers that how you're leveraging triggers in the org and how you're connecting or integrating various functionalities or objects. But you should when you talk about admin you should be aware of it the basic functionalities covered in that followed by that how will you know take out the QA practices what will be the steps when does the QA start. Right rightly said and preparation automatically reflects into interviews right so if you do write preparation then you will shine out in the interviews. So I think we can take all the questions those are in the chat at the end of the talk. So if if we talk about networking right so everybody is doing like preparation or maybe job but how networking helped you to have this transition from non technical background to technical. So how how you will elaborate that thing to the audience like the importance of networking and relationship. Okay so one word for that being in the professional world I would say it was a blessing how come it was a blessing that you know when you have a good set of network. People help you give good kind of advice and there will be a number of advises right many will be give you a reality check as well but don't get demotivated out of it right but make sure that you're taking it as a positive reinforcement. That you know that might go wrong I'll work better for it always go with the three approaches in that case as well what could go wrong what could go right and whatever is going right how can I make it better. So these should be the three approaches post that talking of the fact that when you're in the network right you have a good reach. You could be held while getting some good opportunities if people know your work if people know the talent that you hold they can help you refer in their companies or some other companies where they hold contacts. Right make sure that you're active on LinkedIn like by being active on LinkedIn I'm not saying that you know you're just posting random stuff. If you're posting stuff make sure that you're posting relevant stuff to the profile that you're trying to get in. Right so that your connections will feel connected with you and they will also get to know even without being you know connected with you physically or on any call or any other medium that you are very well cognizant of the logics. Also you know they are Salesforce days try attending that. That's the best way to you know connect with people even if you don't know someone you want to know someone just all you have to do is just hit the connect button on LinkedIn right that will help you. You can ask them anything like there's Sanjay is there right. There are many more people try and connect with them. They will just if not you know talking about the job they'll just help you guide in a different way. Right so yeah it is very helpful insight that you gave because I also think because due to network or relationship I was fortunate enough to have you. On this platform you delivered five sessions on QA and prior to that I helped you to learn Salesforce. So this is how networking works like if you have people around you so you just need to identify how you can connect with them how you can interact with them for your requirements. Right so if you are helping someone so in later time they will also surely will be helping you. Right so live example is like me and Irwin I help Irwin now Irwin help me so this way we are moving forward. Right and in future also like I know Irwin will do wonders in this role and he's trying to learn new things as well. So if he will be having that kind of knowledge so again I will request like Irwin can you come to my channel and deliver those knowledge or content with everybody so that they can prepare as well about that role. Right so I just want to continue this conversation so just out of curiosity like Irwin you are good with Salesforce QA now. And if you want to move forward so which role you will be picking in future on top of Salesforce QA so there are different roles available so out of those which role you are targeting and which is of your interest. In that case I would say it would be business analyst. Business analyst so this is also a good question because some professionals ask me like we are working as a Salesforce QA and what should be our future career path. Right so why you see like QA can become a good business analyst so. Okay so you know initially in this session itself I said that by being a QA you should be inquisitive and gathering you know requirements from the customer then one has to be inquisitive enough in order to you know talk about the vulnerabilities that might come up. Some additional points which are required by the customer must have missed. And also the fact you know when a QA works QA does not just see what is written on the description he or she tests everything that is related to that particular functionality. So therefore you know becoming a BA is a better option in order to you know know the project better understand and that will also help your you know capability to grasp the requirements in a better manner. Know the customer and you know being the business analyst can help you help your team members with a set of requirements. So just think you're getting the requirement for your team and at that time things have been developed on it and tested around it. So how crucial role you're playing being the moderator and being the POC point of contact for the customer who is directly delivering you you're catching out the notes you're gathering each and every point which is required. So that in a way you're doing right now you're not taking it from the customer but you're fetching it from the description of the tickets that you receive and you're implementing it executing the functionalities also you're fetching some additional points out of it. So in a way I would say that BA is more or less an extension to you know the QA's role the only difference is you are not validating over there. Right rightly said so both are like functional role if you don't know coding programming you don't like programming so admin role is for you QA role is for you if you're not having enough opportunities for admin role so you can apply for Salesforce QA role. If you have experience in Salesforce QA then you can define your career path as a Salesforce BA and Salesforce have business analyst certification as well. I think that will help so you can see like Irvin is having one plus years of experience as Salesforce QA and then being that much of experience he's targeting another role Salesforce BA. So this way if you decide your career path being an being an experienced professional so that will help you grow early and quickly. Right and for freshers I know there are challenges but learn platform very well learn different things because admin everybody is learning. So if you learn admin plus QA plus BA skill set if you have and then you try to enter into the ecosystem as a fresher so it will give you a lot more opportunities. Right and one more bootcamp is running on my channel that is for only studio which is also like having point and click interface so you can learn that as well. So if you have those kind of skill sets without having any coding knowledge still you can enter into this ecosystem and if you have entry in any of the organization then you can automatically plan your career because you will be having lots of people around you. You can discuss things so I think if you if you learn all these things together then only you will be having better opportunity as a fresher. Right so now one more question like this is this is a question which is related to job and your life like because this question is important for you because you came from non technical background where work life balance is different. But now you are working in technical industry where work life balance is a problem. Right. So and you are into like fitness stream as well. You know that stuff as well. So this question is related to technical side like how easily you are able to manage your work and life and how you are able to focus on your fitness as well because I can see you are still fit. So how you are managing them managing those things so if you can share some guidance to listeners so it would really help them. All I am doing Sanjay is that the fact that I have my scheduled day. Right. I am not saying that I am perfectly moving according according to my schedule. Right. But it's just that I know the fact what are things I have to do in the day for myself for the family members for my work and for my interests. Right. To begin with the fact that spending time with family I make sure that I do that separately to make sure that I have my social life yet alive not dead. I do that as well. Of course that's not yet that frequent nowadays because it's more more or less with regards to the office office commitment and days that we give right. And coming to the fitness part it's again more or less just in your head and if you are very much determined of the fact that you know you have to do something for your health and for your body you will take out time. It does not matter what time of the day you are going but you go. So that's how you just you have to manage it. Right. But in all the cases like you know you cannot just deny that we don't have time you have to make time for it. So for this I just want to bring up one word that is consistency. So in in in almost most of the session I shared that quote with everybody like consistency is the key and it fits in every aspect. Right. So if you want to get a job you need consistency. If you want to learn Salesforce you need consistency. You can see we have a session tracker and we have weekly sessions. So that is outcome of that consistency so that you can follow that schedule. And if you talk about fitness so they're also you need to apply consistency. So I totally agree with your point even like I also manage work life balance and being like I also switched from education industry to IT industry. So in education industry we used to walk a lot. So it was happening automatically but in IT industry we used to sit on chair for long hours. So I also face the problem initially. Right. But now I am able to manage that fitness thing because of consistency. Right. So I think guys if you if you are related to this IT industry so you also need to manage work life and be consistent in both the both the areas in work as well as in life. Life means whatever other than work you want to do. OK. So one last question Irwin. So you you are working in Salesforce ecosystem on Salesforce QA role. Then you are aiming different role that is Salesforce BA. So how overall you see this Salesforce ecosystem and any anything that you want to tell people like join Salesforce ecosystem what all benefits are here in Salesforce ecosystem with respect to like in India how eventually it is growing. So what you have felt in in last two years about the Salesforce ecosystem. If you can share some thoughts on that. To begin with I would just like to say one word that is humongous. Right. Salesforce ecosystem is humongous. It's way too vast literally vast. There are a number of opportunities that Salesforce brings to you. One or two. You can learn many things. While being in a single you know in the capacity of a single profile. You're being a QA. You can learn many things. You can learn SQL. You can learn bytes and you can learn Apex. Right. You might learn only students and they said there are other platforms as well. You can learn W. You can become an admin as well. So there are many options around this very platform. Is this how you bag them. Right. Also the best part they Salesforce has its own certifications. And the trailers which are there for its preparation is good enough in order to learn and that will help you to grow yourself. You rightly said like trailhead is the like it is the entry point. Right. So if if you are struggling anywhere. So we also like go to trailhead and search if we are not having enough knowledge because that is a source of truth. I would say. Just one more thing like who thought that AI would be there. Yeah. So today Salesforce is you know loudly talking about generative AI. So that's a great option to you know even learn about it and know you know how the cloud works. Right. So it is combination of cloud plus AI because cloud is now becoming like secondary and AI is becoming primary and this is the beauty of Salesforce ecosystem. In technology there is a revolution. So Salesforce immediately adapted that change and Salesforce is talking about AI and in upcoming releases we will be seeing some of the product which will be working with the help of AI as well. So like these are the new things which beginners can learn. Right. So this will open up new opportunities for them as well. Right. Right point you picked up. You know the best part while you're working on this platform is that you can actually leverage it for free and you know supposedly you're doing something of your own and you want to you know have it dragged you can leverage Salesforce you know how to develop you know how to configure it well. Just go develop your configured task with choice and yeah you're tracking it real well. So that will also help you know be better in your profile. If you're a developer it will help you you know be better more better because they are geeks you know who write some real vivid logic of course that are completely unmatchable and being a QA that will help you explore more. You know like you be like that I configured this but no it could have been better how to make it better like I said initially what could go wrong what went right and how we can improve what went right. That will help you in that way as well. Yeah. So I think we covered all the things which beginner and intermediate professional need to know. So there is one question that I want to answer. So someone is asking about the QA specific certification. So can we have the name so that I can reply. Yeah you can actually go for ISTQB. ISTQB OK. Yes. So this question is asked from Nusrat Nusrat I replied in the chat. So it is ISTQB that is for QA only not specific to Salesforce. It is for QA skill set quality analysis. Yes. So that will this certification will get you in depth knowledge of the QA processes and everything that you require in order to become an efficient QA. Right. So other than that I think all the questions we have covered in our discussion. One question from Sumukh in college placement companies are asking about DSA and Java. So Sumukh it is up to you how you divert the interviewers attention. Right. So you just need to prepare your CV in such a way so that you can you can divert interviewer in the direction where you want to go. Right. So just prepare your CV in such a way so that you can highlight like everybody is knowing DSA Java you are also knowing DSA and Java. And that on top of that what industry related skill set you know. Right. So if you highlight that in your CV so it will help you out so that because instead of saying that I know DSA and Java if you say everybody is knowing DSA and Java because that is part of our curriculum. So apart from that being a college student I know Salesforce. I have learned it my at my own through like YouTube or Udemy courses. Right. So if you highlight those things in those interviews so I am sure you will be selected. Right. So this way you can stand out with other folks and Salesforce ecosystem is very vast as even told you in Salesforce ecosystem we have variety of roles. We have variety of products. We have tab you mules of slack. We have different different clouds. Nowadays Salesforce is targeting industries specific industries. So industry related clouds are there and for that we have only studio as a tool. So lots of things and number of opportunities are there. What you need to do you just need to think specifically don't think about admin and development all the times things specifically like which cloud I can prepare so there are CPQ. See Salesforce CPQ industry CPQ there we have nonprofit cloud we have sales cloud marketing cloud commerce cloud experience cloud so you can have expertise in those clouds as well. Right. If you go in that direction I think you will have plenty of opportunities for jobs. Right. So I think even we have covered everything. So I am very very impressed with your journey even and whenever I get a chance to guide someone who struggle from like transitioning from non-technical background to technical or if I want to give any example. So earlier I used to give my example now I used to give your example because I have seen your transition like in recent last two years and the way you delivered all the QA sessions that those are commendable. Right. And I'm sure I will be waiting for your BA related sessions. Right. So maybe in six months or so you will be having those skill sets as well. So I would love to have you again on the platform so that you can share what BA related skill sets are. Right. So it will also help community to learn those skill sets. Right. And for me it would be an immense honor. Yeah. It would be an immense honor for me as well because I am searching someone who can deliver BA related session. But when you told me like you are also moving into that direction. So then I ended my search and I decided like within six months I'm sure you will be able to learn all the things which BA should know. So I think those you can share with the community as well till the time I can run other boot camps. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So thank you so much for your time all the sessions which you have delivered and your journey which you have shared with the community. I think people will get motivated and they will surely and I would request like if you have any question related to a beginning or related to QA you can reach out to Irwin just shoot a question in his LinkedIn. And I'm sure he will reply for your questions. He would be really happy helping you. Okay. So few few folks are asking about offline classes. So even I will be back for with limited seats sessions now. So like this online bootcamp is about to complete and still few folks are facing challenges. They need hand holding. They need like one on one mentorship. So what I decided like I will be launching mission 30 kind of batches. So specific 30 students will be there and I will be personally guiding them over zoom calls. So all the sessions are there on YouTube. They will be watching them and whatever doubts whatever questions they will be having. So I will be guiding them. So the way like I helped you. So I just want to help everybody and initially I will be offering 100 percent scholarship as well. So that is like a kind gesture I want to give to the community. So and then gradually I will be having other stakeholders as well. So I will have some amount charged for that course but that will be very less. So like I decided whatever other than job I'm doing for the community it will benefit the students. Right. So I'm sure like some somewhere you will also become part of that program. It would be an honor. Like trust me especially you know getting it from the person you have learned is no less than a big compliment. Yeah. So do do good work Irwin. My best wishes are with you and I'm happy like you are now exposed in front of community. You delivered some content and I'm sure like people will reach out to you. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you Irwin for all the insightful messages that you shared with the community. OK. So with this note we take your leave. I can see lots of questions are coming up. So guys I won't be able to answer all the questions right now because we need to end the session so you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I will try to answer every question. OK. Thank you everyone. See you in the next session. Thank you Irwin. Bye. Thank you.